"Flame devours. But in its hunger lies truth—stripped of lies, stripped of names."
—Kael Draven, speaking to Ash
.....
The path from the Mirror Sage's warning weighed heavy on them.
Ash trudged forward, hood drawn low against the wind, yet no snow touched him. His shard pulsed faintly beneath his tunic, its warmth no longer a comfort but a reminder. Of futures glimpsed. Of fire and betrayal.
Kael kept his distance now, ever silent. Selene, eyes shadowed, hadn't spoken since the illusions faded. Whatever she had seen in that mirror dome had struck her deep.
The world around them narrowed into a bleak gorge—black cliffs stretching jagged and tall, like the ribs of some long-dead leviathan. The cold here felt…wrong. It didn't bite the skin—it sank into the marrow, echoing through bone like a memory of mourning.
Ahead, the narrow trail widened suddenly into a plateau ringed by ancient stone markers. Crumbling cairns. Each one bore names long erased by time. In their center stood a monolith, cracked down its length, with weathered chains still bolted into its sides.
Selene froze.
"This is it," she whispered. "The Cairn of Broken Vows."
Ash frowned. "What happened here?"
She stepped forward, brushing her fingers across one of the cairns. "This is where Crownbearers once came to cast off their oaths… or were made to. The Forsworn were buried here. Those who turned against the Crown."
Kael scoffed. "So we're walking through a graveyard of traitors."
"No," Selene said quietly. "A graveyard of regrets."
A sudden gust stirred the snow, swirling it into shapes—half-formed figures with hollow eyes. The temperature dropped sharply. Ash reached for his shard. It thrummed in warning.
"They're watching us," he muttered. "Something beneath."
Kael's blade was half-drawn when the plateau trembled.
The cairns shifted. Chains rattled. The cracked monolith split with a thunderous sound, and from its depths, a figure rose.
It wasn't alive. Not truly.
Pale skin stretched over gaunt limbs. Empty eye sockets glowed with cold fire. It wore shattered armor, once regal, now rusted and pitted with scars. Upon its chest, embedded in flesh and bone, was a fragment of a Crown shard—dark as obsidian.
"Ash Lysarion," it said, voice like gravel dragged across stone. "Son of the Betrayed Queen. You carry the fire of the First Flame."
Ash's mouth went dry. "Who… who are you?"
The revenant straightened, bones cracking. "I was once Ser Adravan, Flamebearer of Lysaria. I took the Oath. I broke it. Now I guard the price of betrayal."
Selene grabbed Ash's arm. "It's one of the Crown's original bearers. One who fell."
"What do you want?" Ash demanded.
Adravan's burning gaze turned to him. "To test your resolve. Only those who know the weight of betrayal may wield what you carry."
Without warning, the revenant lunged.
Ash ducked instinctively, the shard at his chest igniting with a flash of searing light. Fire roared forth in a whip of golden flame, meeting Adravan's broken sword mid-swing.
Kael was already moving—ice blooming along his blade as he struck from the flank. But Adravan moved like shadow and wind, shifting between strikes like smoke. His sword clashed with Kael's, then vanished into sparks of black fire that cut toward Selene.
She raised her staff, summoning an arc of mirror-glass flame. The blast halted Adravan for a breath.
Ash stepped forward, fire spiraling around him. "Why are you doing this?!"
Adravan's laugh was bitter and hollow. "Because I once believed I could save the world. And in doing so, I broke it."
The revenant leapt, sword raised, but Ash met him head-on. Flame met black shard-light. The mountain plateau erupted in shockwaves.
And then—
A flash of memory. Not his own.
Ash stood in a throne room of burning silver. Adravan knelt before Lysaria, weeping as she placed a crown upon his brow. Her voice echoed: "You are my sword. My shadow. My final hope."
Then blood. Screams. A shattered mirror.
The vision vanished. Adravan stood frozen, his blade inches from Ash's chest.
He staggered back. "You saw…"
Ash nodded slowly. "I saw what you lost."
The revenant dropped his sword. The black shard in his chest pulsed once, then cracked—splintering into dust.
With a final sigh, Ser Adravan crumbled into ash.
Silence fell.
Kael exhaled, lowering his blade. Selene stepped beside Ash, brow furrowed.
"What did you see?" she asked.
Ash didn't answer right away. He looked to the cracked monolith.
"Even heroes fall," he said finally. "Even loyalty turns to ruin."
Selene shivered, whether from cold or something deeper.
As they turned to leave the cairn, a faint wind blew through the broken stones. A whisper on the edge of hearing:
"Beware the Queen who weeps not for the fallen…"
Ash paused. The wind was already gone. But the echo remained in his mind.
He didn't know where the next shard lay.
But he knew now—he wasn't the only heir of fire.
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